The other day I was reading Streetfilms, which is a great blog about transportation and has lots of clever videos, such as a clay animation that explains how chicanes work.
I came across a video about how Paris has reengineered some of their streets to blend cars, pedestrians, bicycles and other sorts of traffic. They have found when they eliminate curbs, use cobblestones, change alignments and improve signage to force everyone to pay attention, move more slowly and more consciously. I noticed this a few years ago on a trip.
I took these picture in Paris in 2007 as part of my typical boring travel photography. You know- curbs, gutters, bike lanes, stormwater ponds, concrete trucks. (See the whole set from my trip to Paris on flickr.)
A physically separated bike lane area that blends with the road and sidewalk without curbs:
A separate bus lane:
My mind is full of ideas about how these sorts of rehabilitation, streetscape and redesign projects could be done with corridor models, offset alignments and other tools in Civil 3D. Its interesting to think about how many more iterations we could work through and be able to understand the design and tell the story before the project begins construction.
Have you used Civil 3D to help with a traffic calming project? An urban rehabilitation? Tell me about it in the comments!
You might also like to read:
More Traffic Calming posts on Streetfilms
My post about the free bicycles in Paris- the "Vélo Liberté" or Vélib' program
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